happy first day flowers

The day before Maddy's first day of Kindergarten, we spent some time sprucing up her new backpack and lunchbox.

Sure, flowers are spring-timey, but when you're five and you're on your way to the wilds of elementary school, anything goes. So in order give her supplies a little added love, Maddy, her aunts, and I got to work!

• Felty First-Day Flowers: I brought out some brightly colored felt, pom-poms, and some needles and thread. I drew the outline of petals on some pink felt for Maddy, and she cut along the lines.

Then I made tiny dots along the bottom of her petal pattern. These dots would make it easier for her to know where to aim her needle while sewing.

Maddy's petal pattern

And then similar to the day, way back when we added daisies to plain-Jane shorts, today, Maddy sewed along the dotted lines.

The dots make sewing easier for little ones!

When she finished, she pulled the thread tight, and her flower bloomed! I pulled both sides together and sewed the pom-pom in the center.

Then Maddy cut out a leaf, and we added it to the finished flower.

We made one fancy flower ring
and the other ones we made into pins!

I found an old pin--the kind with the pinch back and a flat front, and I hot-glued it onto the back of the flower. I stuck the pin through a square piece of felt and hot glued it on.


Because Maddy made the pink one all by herself, we pinned that one to her lunchbag with the idea that every few days we would change flowers if she wanted to.

When she sees them, maybe she'll remember the sunny, breezy end-of-summer morning when she hung out in her backyard with her mom, dad, brother and sister and two of her super-cool aunts, eating snacks and making beautiful flowers for her backpack. I know I will.

It was quick and easy, we had all the supplies on hand, and these flowers are beautiful! These are the kind of crafts that make me want to dance. . .

And watching that little flower bounce down the hall, away from me and toward this new thing called Kindergarten, made me feel just a tiny bit better about the whole thing. A tiny bit.

Thanks again for another awesome idea inspired by Family Fun. . . not sure from what month (maybe early spring?), but I just had the page filed away in my "I definitely have to try this!" folder.

literacy lava--that's right

I will soon be contributing (woo-hoo!!) to a really awesome online resource for teachers and parents called Literacy Lava.

Here's the skinny:

• Literacy Lava:
  

Making literacy part of our everyday family life is often just a matter of remembering. We need to make sure our kids see that reading, writing, and communicating are important to us, and give them lots of opportunities to participate too.

Literacy Lava 2 is a free magazine that will bring you ideas: for motivating reluctant readers, for literacy on the go, for developing the imagination muscle, for linking math and literacy, for having a pirate party and a book picnic, for rhymes, games, activities and more!

Brought to you by bloggers and writers who are passionate about children's literature and literacy, Literacy Lava 2 is erupting with no- or low-cost activities parents can do with kids to promote literacy.

Coming September 1 to Susan Stephenson's The Book Chook blog!

Are you interested in checking out the first edition of Literacy Lava? You can grab it for free by clicking here.

I cannot help myself when I find something literacy-related, created by really cool and talented people, geared at making it easy for parents to incorporate at home, and made especially to promote learning in our little guys. It's awesome, and I'm totally excited to be a part of it!

new for us friday--kiwi meets the cut and scoop

What do you get when you pair a good ole kiwi with one of the coolest utensils around?

A seriously fun lunch, that's what you get.

At Blogher this year, at the exhibitor's insistence, I grabbed a handful of these yellow Cut and Scoops at the ZESPRI Kiwifruit stand.

I'm so glad I did because it made for a rockin' New For Us Friday this week:

• Kiwifruit & The Cut and Scoop: I told Maddy, Owen, and Cora that today we were not only going to try a newish fruit, but we were also going to learn how to use a spife.
  

They looked at me like I was crazy, and then I said, No, it's not a 'spife'. It's a 'knoon'. Or you can just call it a 'Cut and Scoop'.

I gave them each a plate with a kiwi and a yellow spife, and we got started. They laughed like crazy when they held onto the spife--knoon?--and everyone tried saying each the new words a few times.

Maddy said, What is this thing, and why do we have it? And so I showed them.

I cut my kiwi with one side of my knoon, and then I scooped out a bite and ate it using the other side. They loooooved it. They could all--including Cora--cut their fruit, and after I showed them how to dig down then scoop, they really had a blast eating it.

Maddy uses her spife. Or is it a knoon?

We'll stick with Cut and Scoop.

Owen said, This thing is seedy and sweet. And this Cut and Scoop is too funny. Maddy thought the kiwi was seedy, scrumptious, and sweet, and Cora just said it was sweet and juicy. Then Owen changed his mind and said that it was too seedy for him and he didn't want anymore.

Maddy decided that she liked calling the spife/ knoon a 'Cut and Scoop' best, because that is what it does--it cuts and scoops. So it stuck, and that's what we call it now.

Completely scooped-out kiwis!

I was originally looking for the Gold Kiwi, which I tasted at the conference, but I couldn't find it. I settled on the original Kiwi which we've had before maybe a year or two ago (thanks to NFUF for getting us out of the ole apple, orange, banana rut! ), but seriously, the Cut and Scoop brings new life to this little fruit.

Not to mention, the website rivals our pal the mango; it's packed with information (we should all start eating more kiwifruit today), resources (want to grow them?), recipes , and even games for kids (and also check out what the kids in New Zealand learned about kiwifruit!). Who knew?

Do you want a Cut and Scoop? I've sent an inquiry to the good people at Zespri asking how we can bring 'em on over here for my teachmama pals. We'll see what they say!

Thank you to Zespri for the photo on the right, the information and links, and of course, for our awesome Cut and Scoops!

back-to-school books

As we all know, there are a gazillion children's books on the market that focus on beginning a new school year.

While looking at the library last week for new ones for us, I found four new titles that I am pretty darn excited about. They cover different aspects of school than the norm, and they seem to work well for my kiddos:

• Meet the Barkers--Morgan and Moffat Go To School, by Tomie DePaola (2001): I love, love, love this book because it deals with a set of twins who are heading to school for the very first time, and the focus of the book is teaching kiddos to balance friends and achievement.
  

Moffie (the girl) tends to be an over-achiever, always seeking to earn gold stars and trying to answer every single question, while Morgie (her brother) and her classmates watch. DePaola does a great job--like always--of using his illustrations to convey the emotions of his characters, so readers can tell how Moffie's classmates feel about her "hogging" the spotlight all of the time. Obviously, not too happy. . .

While she's busy as the teacher's pet, Morgie is busy making friends, and by mid-book, you can pretty much tell what needs to happen--Moffie has to learn to share the spotlight and make some pals, and Morgie needs to start talking to the teacher, or it's going to be a long road for both of them.

They both figure it out, and, in the end, Moffie gets a best friend, and Morgie gets a chance to earn a gold star. It's a happy ending, and--I think--a great way to facilitate a discussion about sharing the spotlight with others and meeting new friends in school.

• Tom Goes to Kindergarten by Margaret Wild (1999): This book is a riot. I particularly liked it because it begins with, "Every day, Tom and his mother and Baby went past kindergarten on their morning walk. . . " His mother tells him, "That'll be you soon, Tom," much like I said to Maddy every day when we watched the big neighborhood kids walk up the hill to school. (And it will be her soon--like in 4 days!?)
  

Tom is excited for school, and he even shouts, "YES!" when he wakes up on the first day. But once he's there, he doesn't want his parents to leave--so they don't. They stay at school with him that day, and they stay the next, until Tom strongly suggests they go home. His mom and dad and baby brother leave--reluctantly--but they do very silly things when they get home, mirroring all of the activities they loved in the classroom.

It's one of those books that makes you giggle when you read it, and that's why we loved it--and read it over, and over, and over.

• Jessica by Kevin Henkes (1989): We LOVE Kevin Henkes over here but have never read this book. It's a great back-to-school book for our house because it's about a little girl, Ruthie, who has an imaginary friend named Jessica. Ruthie is an only child who does just about everything with Jessica, including taking her to school with her on the first day. (Yikes.)
  

Ruthie doesn't do anything at school to meet new friends; rather, she plays with imaginary Jessica. We talked a lot about how Henkes shows us how Ruthie really feels about playing with Jessica in school by the way he draws sad faces and slumped shoulders on her, but after she makes an effort to meet a new friend, Ruthie's whole body clearly changes into a brighter, more alive little person.

My big Owen has a tendency to talk quite often about his own imaginary pal, so this book seemed a good fit for him. We are not discouraging his pretend friend or the stories Owen makes up about him, but we do want him to see how important it is to make friends in school and to have fun with them while he's there.

• It's My School by Sally Grindley (2005): This book is great for siblings who will be sharing a new school for the first time. Tom is the big brother who does not want to share his school with his little sister, Alice, who is completely and totally excited for Kindergarten. Tom acts very angry towards his sister, and he even runs away from her on the school yard. However, after he hears her yell and scream for him when she loses her teddy bear, he comes to her rescue like a good big brother should.

Owen and Cora will share a school this year (okay, for one day a week. . . ), but I used this book to discuss how Tom's behavior toward his sister was not okay, was not kind and loving, and how that behavior is not the kind of behavior that we show toward anyone, especially a family member--ever. But even though we used it as a teaching tool that way, it still worked to talk about playground behavior for Maddy and the idea of being kind and helping others when they need it.

Along with the other few--and very simple--things we're doing over here to prepare for the new adventure that will be Kindergarten, these books also help to make the road a little less scary for Maddy--and even for the rest of us.

preparing for kindergarten--the last week

Many of my good pals and awesome readers have emailed me asking what exactly I'm doing to prepare Maddy for Kindergarten.

I think it's a really good question. Most of us spend the first five years of our kids' lives preparing them for the time when we'll hand them over to others to begin their formal education. But for me, this last week of summer seems. . . especially important.

Here are just a few things that we have done, and will do this week to get us ready for the first day of Kindergarten:

• A Quick Hello Note: I created this simple letter this past weekend after being inspired by my favorite magazine ever, Family Fun.
  

It's a Quick Hello Note from Maddy to her new teacher. I totally love it.

It's really just a chance for Maddy to say Hello to her teacher before school begins. I included a "To" and "From" line and a spot for a small picture of Maddy. It also includes her birthday and a few of her favorites: food, color, animal, holiday, and activity.

The cool thing is that it includes a second page for the teacher to fill out. I know--having been there myself--that teachers are busier than busy this week, so the letter is super short. It mirrors the note that Maddy completed--just a spot for a name, birthday, and some favorites.

Maddy filled out her name, and we took turns writing the answers to each favorite. Then we put both sheets in an envelope and walked it up to the school. We asked the secretary to drop it in her teacher's mailbox, and we were finished!

Maddy's note for her teacher

My hope is that her teacher may find time to return the letter at this week's Open House or sometime during the first week of school. It's just a great chance for Maddy to feel more connected to her teacher before the year begins.

Here is the Hello Teacher Note as a pdf to download if you please.

• Lunchbox Practice: She's had lunch at preschool before, but one day this week I'm going to pack lunch for us all to take to the park.
  

I'll use Maddy's brand new lunchbox and the earth-friendly containers I plan to use this year. I just want to make sure she's able to open them on her own, and I'll remind her that half-empty juice boxes belong in the trash, not back in her lunch bag.

• Playdates With New Pals: Last spring, I sent an inquiry out over our community online bulletin board asking for any parents of rising kindergartners at our elementary school to contact me if they were interested in participating in summertime playdates.
  

Along with the families involved in my local MOMS Club, we had a pretty large group of soon-to-be-Kindergartners by mid-summer. We met 2-3 times each month, and the familiar faces--I hope--will ease the transition for many of our kiddos.

And there's no time like the present; if your school has an open house for students or a back-to-school night for parents, why not have a sheet ready for a last-minute playdate sign-up then? A weekend before school starts may still work!

• School Visits: Just dropping by the building to bring our labels by the school for the last few years, or recently delivering her teacher's letter or Kindergarten forms, I have to say that I've tried to make the school a familiar place for our family. We have attended the carnivals, crashed (okay, so honestly, the first year it was an accident) the cook-outs, played at the playground, sledded down the hill, and picnicked near the trees.
  

Yes, we're totally lucky that the school is a stone's throw from our house, but I'm hoping now that the time there will make Maddy's transition a bit easier.

• Mom (or Dad) and Maddy Time: Whether I take her to the little place down the road for a special little manicure or do it myself here, I'm definitely going to steal for myself some time alone with Maddy to chat about anything she might have on her mind or to answer questions she has about school.
  

• Books: We've been reading, reading, reading all summer long. I've stumbled across some really awesome school-related titles which I'll share this week.
  

• Summer Work: Yep, we've hit it a few good times this past summer. The Buggy Calendar provided by the school totally rocks, and the ideas were great. I'm thankful for the work the teachers did in preparing it and know that Maddy really enjoyed the activities we chose.
  

My kids have never fared well with count-downs or a whole lot of build-up for specific events in our lives; they've always been better with a "Hey! Guess where we're going today (or tomorrow)!" So we're not counting down the days or talking about the start of school every single day. Rather, I'll throw in a little something here or there when it seems like the right time.

We all know that Kindergarten is right around the corner, so along with a whole lot of snuggle time, that is our schedule for this last big week. . .

And, if you'd like to hear what some of the seasoned moms and dads wish they had known before they sent their kiddos off to school, check out
this super-helpful post by my pal, Resourceful Mommy.

braid basket

Today, in the chaos that envelops most homes the week before school begins, Maddy said, Mommy, I want to learn how to braid.

So I stopped what I was doing (what could really trump teaching my soon-to-be-Kindergartener how to braid?!), thought for a second, and ran for some supplies I knew we had on hand that would help her learn to do just that--braid.

And so, our braid basket was born.

• Braid Basket: My mom picked these wire baskets up from the dollar store last year for Maddy, Owen, and Cora to use to carry the tomatoes from our garden to the kitchen. I was actually looking for a shoe box or an old plastic bucket that I could poke holes in then thread the string through, but this basket was one step ahead of me.
  

Before it was a Braid Basket, it was just a little yellow basket.

Then I grabbed three strands of different colored yarn, three shiny ribbons, three sparkly ribbons (leftovers from Maddy's Fancy Nancy Salon Tea Party Birthday Bash), and three pipe cleaners.

I tied the strands to the bottom of the basket and took the brand new Braid Basket to Maddy's room.

We spent the next few minutes braiding. I told her to use her feet or legs to hold the basket steady, and then we began. We started with the pipe cleaners, and I said, Put the yellow over green, then orange over yellow, then green over orange. . .

Her tiny fingers can do it!

Maddy moved on to the longest, skinniest strands, and I knew she had it. I watched her for a bit, and we talked about the things moms and daughters talk about while they're busy braiding. And then Cora appeared in the doorway, and Owen said he needed help on the potty, and the phone rang, and life went back into full swing.

The Braid Basket will remain just that for as long as we need it to be, but I anticipate re-making it into the Shoelace Basket in just a short while for my big, bad Owen.

Ahhh, the beauty of a flexible household and new lives for even the most random things. . .

new for us friday--amusement park

After last week's touchy New For Us Friday which was immediately followed by the somewhat unexpected passing of my husband's amazing, loving, charming, and incredible grandmother, we needed to see life on the upswing.

So, on the way back to Maryland from Pennsylvania, my husband and I took the kids on a necessary-for-us detour and a surefire NFUF hit: their very first
amusement park.

• Dutch Wonderland: This place really is a "Kingdom for kids" because it's a park made especially for little ones. There are over 30 "kid-friendly" rides there, a train that runs through the whole park, great shows and entertainment, nursing stations for moms, and snack bars and restrooms around every corner.

Maddy and Owen rode their first roller coaster.

We all rode the Sky Ride together that spanned the park.

The Sky Ride totally rocked.
(So what if I couldn't stop praying to God
that none of us would fall through the bars.)

We tried the swings, the Turtle Whirl, the fun slide, the log ride, and the carousel.

We saw ponies, listened to music, and watched the dancers.

You can't miss them--Brent and Maddy are on this coaster!
(Owen wasn't tall enough for the really big one.)

We laughed, screamed, hooted & hollered, sweated our pants off, and enjoyed every second of it.

I would totally recommend that anyone with kiddos here in the DC Metro area hit Dutch Wonderland while their little ones are small. I know we're already planning our return trip--next time possibly with some support-staff aunts, uncles, or grandparents--and as far as NFUF's go, this one was a winner.

It was new; it took us all out of our comfort zones, and it was a little bit of a challenge (on top of a lot of fun). And it especially helped to lift our spirits after an emotionally-exhausting and doleful week.

Talk about a super way of watching our summer wind down before school, activities, and tutoring will pack our calendar.

beach learning

We've been home from the beach for a week now, and as I was cleaning up stamps, markers, and stickers this past week, my heart ached for the easy, sandy slate of the beach.

Sure, Cora's diapers were full of it by the end of the day, and we grew tired of biting down on grits of sand in our snacks, but I wish I would have taken better advantage of the sand as a teaching tool while we were there.

The beach can be a super place to sneak in a little bit of learning--along with all of the free play and fun that long and lazy days there allow. But since most of us cannot be there for much more than a week each year, let us be thankful for sandboxes and sandy volleyball courts at the pool. We can use them instead!

Hey--we can even use the dirt at the park for this kind of stuff. . .

Here's how this teach mama (and teach daddy) tried to sneak in a little bit of learning last week--even though we were on vacation:

• Tic-Tac-Toe: Using sticks or shovels, we used the more firm sand down by the ocean as our tic-tac-toe boards a few times while we took breaks from jumpin' waves. Simple things like the creation of the board help emerging writers with straight lines and spacing, and the X's and O's are the very first letters that little ones should even attempt. If they can master these marks, they can get the basics for every other letter.

On top of that, with a little game like tic-tac-toe, they can begin to learn simple strategies and game-playing etiquette.

Owen and his dad engaged in a rough game of tic-tac-toe

• Writing: One afternoon, I asked Maddy if she could write her name in the sand (names are always good words to start with!). She wrote 'Maddy' and then she made a heart after her name.
  

I said, Awesome! Who do you love? (secretly hoping it would be me!). And she wrote CORA.

I told her that she was a super sister and an amazing writer, and she made another heart and wrote OWEN after it. After OWEN, she made another heart and wrote DAD after it. (Ahem, hello? Mommy?. . . )

Maddy loves Cora . . .

. . . who loves Owen who loves Dad. . .

. . . who loves Mom. . .

And after MOM, she stopped for a second, thought and wrote CAT, and then she made another heart and wrote DOG. No joke. She looked at me, started to giggle so hard, and then a wave washed everything away, and she started to cry.

She said, But Mommy, I worked so hard and now it's gone!! And I said, Well, lucky for you I took pictures of it, and now we have it forever.

Except that I was so stunned with the CAT and DOG part that I didn't take a picture of it after all; instead, I just stood there, frozen, wondering what could quite possibly come next.

The beach--the sand--the dirt--whatever is right there in front of you is a great spot for some learning, whether it be a tic-tac-toe game with X's and O's as the markers or with any other letter you're working on. Who says one guy has to be X and the other O? How about M and Z? L and Q? Numbers 3 and 4? How about 2 and 7?

And the challenge for little ones to write their names--or any word--in a crazy new medium, whether it be sand, mud, jell-o, pudding, sticks, or fingerpaint, is a well-spent few minutes no matter where you are at the time.

Collecting shells and then counting and sorting them back at the house, Googling that weird stuff that washes up on the shore (fish eggs or jellyfish pieces?), writing on the sand, trying to fly a kite, tasting new shellfish from the market--are all cool ways of sneaking in a little bit of learning while you're at one of the greatest vacation spots around--the beach!

new for us friday--stranger safety

This New For Us Friday makes my stomach turn and my eyes tear--seriously.

But it is so important that we had to try it out this week, especially with Maddy starting Kindergarten this fall.

So for about 15 minutes each night this week, ending today, we watched a tiny bit of a video that came recommended to me by one of my best pals.

It's the Stranger Safety DVD created by Julie Clark (Baby Einstein creator) and John Walsh (America's Most Wanted creator and lifetime advocate for missing and exploited children).

Here's how it went:

• The Safe Side--Stranger Safety DVD: We played it like a Movie Night on Tuesday; after Maddy, Owen, and Cora had baths and while they had their snacks, I said, We're going to watch a movie this week--a little bit each night. We're starting tonight!
  

The kids went nutty and flew down the stairs. They were buzzing about what it would be--Cars? Monsters, Inc? Tink? I told them it was a little different--a new one for them and one that was super important to watch.

They could tell by the tone of my voice that something was up, and I fear that my own anxiety was palpable. I tried to play it cool, but when I watched the DVD for the first time with my husband a few months ago, I ugly cried at the end.

It's a rite of passage for our little ones--the understanding that not everyone out there is to be trusted and the world is not as safe as they think, and it's a rite of passage for parents to hand over that information.

So we watched it in four segments, and although the video stops at points for parents to talk with their children about the topics, I stopped it more frequently to clarify points, answer questions, and add some information. And since Maddy, Owen, and Cora (along for the ride and missed one night because of no nap) are young, I wanted to give them smaller, easier-to-digest doses.

Here's the skinny on the The Safe Side Stranger Safety. . .

I love that:

• the video is upbeat and as positive as possible about a very tough topic;
  
• the website contains a PDF family guide (35 pages!) that includes some resources for parents to read before viewing the DVD with their kids;
• the four main activities in the family guide totally rock (Pre- and During-Viewing Activities; Post-viewing Discussion Points and Activities; Post-Viewing Celebration Ceremony Activities, Post-Viewing Trivia Game);
  
• the family guide also includes information sheets and data forms for children and parents;
• the Safe Side Super Chick (SSSC) is funny, straightforward, sassy, and easy for children to understand;
• the SSSC wears red (for danger), yellow (warning), and green (safe) shirts to demonstrate what kind of situation she's in; [Owen really responded to this--he kept his eye on her shirt color the whole time and warned us when it changed.]
• they focus on the difference between Don't Know's and Kinda Know's;
• they teach kids to 'think and beware of tricks';
• they tell children to create a 'safe side circle';
• they insist that right there and then parents list three other Safe Side Adults;
  
• the SSSC talks directly to viewers (young children) and acknowledges their fears and shows them how to yell, scream, and make sure they keep themselves safe;
• the DVD explains a concept and then shows a child in that situation, making the correct choice;
• they never mention 'Stranger' throughout the entire program because they want to make sure it's clear that rarely do the bad guys actually look the part.
  

I wish that:

• they would have toned-down the SSSC's crazy hair and lost the not-so-funny ape;

Seriously, this program is that good. That's all I could come up with.

My plan is to show The Safe Side Stranger Safety a few more times in the next few weeks, not to scare my kids but rather to make it a normal topic, an easy, familiar one for them. I know that there's a fine line between knowledge as power and too much information as over-kill, so I am definitely going to keep a balance here.

I want them to know their Safe Side Adults like the back of their hands, and I want them to be aware of their surroundings--knowing the perimeter of their Safe Side Circle and the difference between their Don't Know's and Kinda Knows.

I'm praying that they never, ever, ever have to use this information and that this NFUF is as hard as they get for us.

swinging and clapping

Lately, since Owen's mastered pumping on the swings, we've spent a whole lot of time in our back yard--just swinging.

Most of the time, we chat about important things like bugs, school, the pool, clouds, and our friends while my kiddos put in some air time, but other times I try to--you got it--sneak in a little bit of learning while we're out back.

What we did today seems so small, but it can really help little ones develop that super-important skill of phonemic awareness.

• Syllable Clapping: All we did today was clap out syllables in words; I started by clapping as I said each person's name.

I said, Mad-dy (and I clapped twice), O-wen (clapped twice), Co-ra (clapped twice), and Mom-my (clapped twice again). Listen to each of our names. Mad-dy, O-wen, Co-ra, Mom-my. For each of our names, I clapped two times. Each of our names has two syllables. A syllable is like a beat--ba-bum, ba-bum, ba-bum--in music.

Let's try Madeline. How many beats do you hear in Maddy's full name--Ma-de-line (clapped three times)? Right! Three. How about Daddy? Dad-dy. Two.

What other names can you think of that we can clap out? We did Daddy, Golden, Guinea (of course). Then they took turns calling out things in the yard--ball, bat, sandbox.

We talked about words that had one syllable and words that had more. I asked if they could think of the longest word they could with the most beats (I used 'beat' and 'syllable' interchangeably because I knew that Maddy and Owen like to 'own' new and long words, but I didn't want to totally lose Cora). I have high hopes.

They came up with 'refrigerator'--pretty impressive!

Then I called out a category, like food, animals, family members, and toys, and we clapped the syllables for those words. Then the phone rang, we got off-track, and that was the end of our game.

Here's why clapping syllables is totally worth your while:

Phonemic awareness is one component of phonological awareness. It is the ability to hear, identify, and manipulate the individual sounds in spoken words. Once children understand that language is made up of words, they can learn that those words are made up of different sounds. Being able to clap out syllables in words will help them to segment those words and to isolate sounds, which will ultimately assist them in both writing words and in decoding words.

A huge way to develop phonological awareness--the ability to hear, identify and manipulate sound units in words--is with rhyming, reciting nursery rhymes, playing rhyme games, sorting rhyming words. When you are working on rhymes, you're helping little ones to recognize sound units in words; when they can pick out these sound units, they'll be more able to hear the individual sounds. Win-win!

Thanks, thanks, and more thanks to:
Patricia Cunningham's Phonics They Use: Words for Reading and Writing, 3rd Edition (Addison-Wesley Educational Publishers, 2000). Another awesome resource!

successful super summer swap

Literally, the minute Maddy and Owen woke up after returning from the OBX, they first ran to check on Golden and Guinea, and then they hit the dining room to check on their big box from Texas.

They worked so hard on their package for their penpals, so they were very curious about what might be included in the letters for them.

• Pen Pal Package: Maybe inspired by their recent Space Week, or more likely because they're so close to Houston, Owen couldn't get enough of the shuttle that his penpal included or the Space Flash Cards--both are like nothing he's got going on over here.

Add a few postcards, a letter, chalk, and a Lightening McQueen lollipop to the mix, and my Owen was in heaven, ready to book a ticket to Texas to visit his new buddy.

Maddy's package

Maddy's letter was more like a tiny book with pictures drawn by her penpal and little notes throughout. It was perfect for Maddy, as was the Tiny Petshop Octopus that was included; she literally sang and danced she was so happy to open it.

She, too, opened a cool chalk holder, Elvis stickers (no joke!), postcards, and pencils--all totally had Maddy hooked.

Little Cora was also kindly included in the package--a small, divided Texas plate was for her, and she loves having something special to use at meals and snacks.

Thank you so much to our penpal family at Digital Reflections!!

Maddy's thank you notes

Today, Maddy and Owen worked on short 'thank you' notes for their penpals. We kept them simple, and although they didn't feel up to writing much, I still think it's important for them to get in the habit of composing short notes of thanks after they receive a gift.

I cannot thank Christy or Denise enough for coming up with the cool idea behind the Super Summer Swap.

Any authentic reason to get our little ones reading and writing--and researching and planning--for a purpose that genuinely interests them is what we ultimately strive for as parents and teachers.

At least that's what this sneaky teach mama strives for over here, and I love it when my bloggy pals help me out in the endeavor!

trying to keep smiling: quick trick, special plate

About two years ago, I ran across this huge, crazy, red, gaudy Special Plate at our local home design store.

It was a no-brainer for me to pick it up, since I vaguely remembered reading about the wonders of the "Special Plate" somewhere during the foggy time when I had three kids, three years old and under.

So here is my Quick Trick for today--The Special Plate.

• The Special Plate: We use the Special Plate for just about any reason we can find. For one day, whoever earns the Special Plate will use it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Cereal bowls sit on top of it, and it's a great resting spot for just about any meal--from peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to spaghetti or steak.

Here are just some ways a person can earn the Special Plate. . .

-Waking up in dry Overnights . . . being kind to a family member or friend. . . sharing toys. . . cleaning up without having to be asked. . .

-Using super-polite manners. . . having a great report from teachers. . . helping Mom or Dad with a project. . . working hard at something. . .

-Having a great swim meet/ soccer practice/ or gymnastics class. . . showing us that they're really trying hard to be patient, kind, helpful . . .

-Finally jumping off of the diving board. . . being brave at the doctor or dentist or after a big fall. . . helping out a neighbor. . . having a birthday. . .treating Golden and Guinea in a gentle, loving way. . .

-Getting through that first week of being potty-trained. . . a first day of school. . . being caught doing something sweet, when they thought no one was looking. . .

One of Maddy's awesome preschool teachers shared with me that her family uses their Special Plate almost daily and then at dinnertime everyone goes around the table saying one kind thing about each person.

I love, love, love the Special Plate idea and wish I remembered to use it more, since focusing on positive behavior is oftentimes overlooked. We all seem to be more programmed to deal negative behavior after it occurs--especially with young children.

Just another little something that works for us--on most days.

shore fun

Today, we're heading home from the Outer Banks--a vacation we've been looking forward to for weeks but one that comes with a 6+ hour car ride journey.

After my last trip back from PA--my 5 hour solo adventure--the last thing I am going to do is plop my 5, 3, and 2 year old in the car without ample planning.

Here's what I've got in my back pocket for my three young travelers, should they suddenly get ants in their little stuck-in-carseats-pants.

• Travel Bingo OBX: This is a totally awesome adaptation of my first game, this time made by my pal, Laura, who is a seasoned Outer Banks traveler. She knew cool sites to add to the game, and she kindly sent it to me to use.
  

I called it Travel Bingo OBX, and Maddy, Owen, and Cora loved playing it on the way down because it includes Grave Digger (the monster truck), the World's Largest Hammock (no joke!), a tunnel, and everything beachy--sailboats, bikes, etc. It proved to be an awesome game and kept little eyes and hands busy.

Travel Bingo OBX is here to download as a pdf if you'd like.

• ABC Road Hunt: We played this a loooong time ago, but I printed out new boards and clipped them to new chart stickers. These are simply small squares under each letter of the alphabet. When a player spies a letter, he puts a sticker in the box--that's it!

Although my kiddos were not interested in playing this on the way, we've got them ready, complete with tiny stickers should they choose to play today. I printed out one uppercase board and one lowercase board for each Maddy, Owen, and Cora.

• Number Hunt Boards: I also printed a few of these out in case we were feeling a little number-hungry along the way. With the many road signs, license plates, and highway signs we'll see, I thought this would be worthwhile.

These are the same deal as the ABC Hunt Game, but with numbers 1-20. And the great thing is that if we don't use these boards while traveling, we can always use them in the house, grocery store, or wherever.

• Color Cards: Along with my bag of Color Cards and Clips, I have a small bag of about 20 paint-store color samples that I cut into squares. Each strip had about 4 or 5 shades, so the bag has bits of every color. This little guy has proved to buy us some time a few weeks ago while we waited at the vet before Golden and Guinea's check-up and at a few restaurants before our meals arrived.
  

Maddy and Owen like to make color lines or patterns with the colors, and I usually help Cora sort the colors into piles. It's not as easy to sort these as you might think; some of the colors--the yell0w-green or purplish-pink--even stump Maddy and Owen!

Our color cards

• Books: I re-vamped, re-arranged, and re-organized the book supply that we keep in our car; at our hospital's book tent a few weeks ago, I stuffed my $8 bag with every great children's book I could find. With a fresh supply of books to walk through on this long trip, I had a feeling that Maddy, Owen, and Cora would find something they liked.

I also put a huge stack of early-emergent reader texts in Maddy's small backpack. Kindergarten is fast approaching, and I know she likes to try to read the words she can on the pages.

• Backpacks: In everyone's tiny travel backpack, I put their small Magna-Doodle and their bag of art supplies--a few sheets of stickers, their travel crayons, some paper, and a small tablet. I threw a bunch of cars in Owen's pack, some Polly Pockets in Maddy's, and some Little People in Cora's.
  

Miraculously, our drive to the Outer Banks from Maryland was (surprisingly!) enjoyable. It could have been a combination of leaving before the crack of dawn, stopping for breakfast, or the anticipation of the beach at the end of the road.

We'll cross our fingers today for a safe and peaceful trip on the way home, and hopefully these three tiny travelers will have a few games, some easy activities, and their memories of jumping waves and collecting seashells to keep these kiddos occupied.

we've got an alphabet here. . .

My friend, Allie's blog, No Time For Flashcards, totally rocks. One of the goals of her site is to share the information she has acquired from working with preschoolers and their parents for over 10 years. She provides activities in conjunction with related children's books, and that's one thing I really love about her site--we always have a good list for our trips to the library!

She kindly allowed me to share a post from her site with my awesome teach mama readers, and this is the one I chose; it's a compilation of her alphabet work, so there's an activity for every letter. It is nothing short of awesome. Thanks, Allie!

Letter Of The Week
Guide

We took a week off from making our Letter of The Week craft to enjoy a day out as a family for Mother's Day. Instead I complied the our whole alphabet ! Click on the letter of your choice and it will link you to all the activities we have done for that letter so far. As we add more activities they will be added automatically.

Two Alphabet Books!

" Z Goes Home" by Jon Agee follows the letter Z from the time he leaps down from the sign at the zoo until he makes his way home. Along his travels he encounters all the other letters. Some are of the words the letters represent may be challenging for preschoolers, but the illustrations are clear and your child won't have too hard a time finding the letter in the picture.

"The Graphic Alphabet" by David Pelletier is a fun book to share with a child who has already mastered the alphabet, because this book is challenging. Each letter is shown in it's own illustration, but you aren't sure exactly what the picture is of, this is the challenge. As you can see on the cover it has an avalanche, the hardest one for me was N no matter how I looked ta the picture I thought it was of magnets! Turns out it was noodles! Very fun book for kids that already know their letters and are up for a challenge.


Thank you, Allie, for allowing me to post this from No Time for Flashcards--an incredible site really worth checking out!